Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes across the globe to weigh in on the most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.

>Former NBA standout Andrei Kirilenko has been elected president of the Russian Basketball Federation. Perfect time to ask you to name your all-time, All Soviet Union/Russian NBA team.

Steve Aschburner, NBA.com: Nobody told us there was going to be geography and geo-politics on this quiz. But here’s my best group of five: Kirilenko (Russia), Arvydas Sabonis, Sarunas Marciulionis and Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Lithuania) and Zaza Pachulia (Georgia). The best of them likely was Sabonis, but he was an older, slower player by the time he reached the NBA with Portland at age 31. Loved his gruff exterior and his clever, Dan Quisenberry-like submarine passing.

Fran Blinebury, NBA.com: I’m tempted to just go with the 1988 Olympic gold medalists, but have got to make room for the versatile AK-47 and the leading scorer from the infamous 1972 final over the U.S.

C : Arvydas Sabonis — We never saw him at the peak of his powers in the NBA.
F : Andrei Kirilenko — Slashing scorer, first-rate defender.
F : Aleksandr Volkov — Two so-so NBA seasons, but a force at PF for Soviet national team.
G : Sarunas Marciulionis — The feisty, aggressive guard opened the door for Europeans in the NBA.
G : Sergei Belov — Leading scorer in 1972 gold medal game, first international player voted into Naismith Hall of Fame.

Scott Howard-Cooper, NBA.com: Fans of some of the former Soviet states won’t be happy — Arvydas Sabonis was Lithuanian, after all, and so on — but for purposes of the question:
C: Arvydas Sabonis
PF: Timofey Mozgov
SF: Andrei Kirilenko
SG: Sarunas Marciulionis
PG: Alexey Shved
If I’m missing anyone, and I can’t help but wonder I am, I hope they’re a guard. The frontline is the strength, especially Sabonis and Kirilenko as the top selections no matter the position. Sabonis is the best talent on the list, but in the context of NBA play, as the question says, Kirilenko is No. 1 after playing more years, playing better, and with his best seasons in the NBA. North American fans sadly mostly saw the injury-depleted Sabonis.

John Schuhmann, NBA.com: Picking the frontcourt is pretty easy: Kirilenko, Arvydas Sabonis and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. And I’ll go with Sarunas x 2 in the backcourt: Marciulionis and Jasikevicius, though the latter was a lot more fun to watch when he played for Lithuania than when he played for the Pacers and Warriors.

Sekou Smith, NBA.com: Any team of this kind has to start with the great Arvydas Sabonis in the middle, flanked by Alexander Volkov and Kirilenko at the forward spots with the criminally underrated Sarunas Marciulionis in the backcourt alongside one of my all-time favorite big-moment competitors, Sarunas Jasikevicius. If Kirilenko had that kind of starting five to work with as president of the Russian Basketball Federation, he could ride the wave in that job for years.

Ian Thomsen, NBA.com: The old Soviet regime (unlike the former Yugoslavia) did not produce a lot of NBA guards, and neither has the Russian federation. So I am piecing together this team in faith that Sabonis and Ilgauskas could complement one another inside and outside, and that Kirilenko would have the skills and defensive versatility to shift to the backcourt when necessary.
C: Arvydas Sabonis
C: Zydrunas Ilgauskas
F: Alexander Volkov
F: Andrei Kirilenko
G: Sarunas Marciulionis

Lang Whitaker, NBA.com’s All Ball blog: Well, Kirilenko is on my team, if only for that run he had in the 2000’s with the Jazz, when he was fully healthy and seemingly capable of posting a quadruple-double on any given night. We always heard that we in the U.S. never saw the best of Arvydis Sabonis, but even playing with injured knees in Portland, he was pretty great. Sarunas Marciulionis won gold with the USSR at the 1988 Olympics, and had a great run with the Golden State Warriors. How about my main man Sasha Volkov, who was one of the pioneers of the international movement to the NBA when he played for some of the Atlanta Hawks’ better early-‘90s teams? And if we’re picking one for the future, Timofey Mozgov is coming off an NBA Finals appearance and looks like he still has a lot of years left in him.

OffRtg

DefRtg

AST/FG

2010

World Championship

17

12

5

2

2011

Eurobasket

21

6

2

2

2012

Olympics

9

5

2

2

The high assist rate corresponds with Blatt’s Princeton background. He played under Pete Carrill at the Ivy League school. Those Russia teams did not have an offensive star, but rather a lot of solid players who worked well together.

But while Blatt’s Maccabi Tel Aviv teams have also played slow, they haven’t assisted at a high rate. And they’ve been better offensively than defensively.

Maccabi Tel Aviv rankings

Season

Pace

OffRtg

DefRtg

AST/FG

2010-11

8

1

3

12

2011-12

15

6

12

19

2012-13

17

4

7

15

2013-14

17

4

13

11

The good news is that Blatt has had success on both ends of the floor. The bad news is that he’ll likely have much of the same roster that Mike Brown had this season. Under Brown, the Cavs were the seventh most improved defensive team in the league, but they actually regressed defensively after acquiring Luol Deng from Chicago and finished with below average marks on both offense and defense.

For Blatt to succeed, he’ll need to get Kyrie Irving to share the ball, put some effort into the defensive end of the floor, and take on a leadership role. Really, how well this works out is more about Cleveland’s supposed franchise player than it is about their new coach.

Well, there is always that game Sunday and a potential matchup against his good friend and teammate Kobe Bryant and the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team, and those other two high-profile teammates back in the States watching all of the action unfold.

It’s a decent rebound summer for a guy whose name had come up in so many trade rumors over the past two years that it made it hard not to internalize all of the chatter. Instead of heading elsewhere, Gasol will be a central figure on a Lakers team that vaults into the mix with Miami and Oklahoma City as favorites to win the 2012-13 NBA title.

Most importantly, Gasol will stay put in Los Angeles for at least the foreseeable future.

“That’s big news, big news.” Gasol said after Spain’s 67-59 win over Russia. “That’s huge. I’ve been involved in so many talks and so many rumors, we all know that. After a while I’ve been able to block it out. So I feel relieved. And I’m anxious and excited with our team, fully committed and fully focused on working extremely hard and just our team as much as I can.”

August 8, 2012 · 2:43 PM ET

LONDON — Russia and Spain will square off in one Olympic semifinal, both of them having survived in quarterfinal action North Greenwich Arena Wednesday.

Russia survived a late Lithuania rally and held on for an 83-74 win behind Andrei Kirilenko‘s 19 points and 13 rebounds and some clutch shooting late from captain Sergey Monya. They led five players in double digits for Russia, which finished first in pool play from Group B.

“Sergey Monya, our captain, is the face of everything we do, the face of Russia,” said Russia’s coach David Blatt. “He has played in every game for Russia in the seven years I have been with the team. He came up the biggest at the right time. He made the two biggest shots of the game and maybe of our career together.”

Spain had to survive France and some late-game licks to advance. They closed the game on a 12-2 run and won 66-59 to set up Friday’s semifinal matchup against Russia.

Nicolas Batum took a nasty swing at Juan Carlos Navarro, balling up his fist and swinging below the belt with 24 seconds to play. His frustration boiled over after his team’s inability to finish with a flourish, the loss itself and Spain’s “flopping” as France exited the competition before the medal round.

It was the second or third such incident of the competition, with Chris Paul of the U.S. and Facundo Campazzo of Argentina both taking swings (or at least Paul was accused of taking one) during their last pool play game Monday night.

“I just wanted to give him a good reason to flop,” an unapologetic Batum said after the game. He was called for an unsportmanlike foul but wasn’t ejected from the game. And as players from both sides shook hands, Batum was in the middle of the mix without incident.

He objected to Spain’s tactics afterwards, though, insisting that he Spaniards resorted to acting late with the game on the line.

“That’s not basketball,” he said, haven taken particular offense to the reaction of Rudy Fernandez after he was fouled by Ronny Turiaf in front of the scorer’s table moments earlier. “Sometimes, you have to give them a good reason to flop. And I hope I did.”

August 2, 2012 · 5:22 PM ET

LONDON — The medals will be handed out when it’s all over, but Russia’s Vitaly Fridzon will leave here having secured at least one spectacular memory from this competition.

Fridzon knocked down an off-balance 3-pointer from the corner, on a brilliantly executed play with four seconds to play to cap a thrilling 75-74 comeback win over Brazil.

“Coach told me if I was open to shoot it,” said Fridzon, who had his legs taken out on the shot by Brazil’s Leandro Barbosa. “I shot it.”

Fridzon’s shot capped a furious comeback from Russia, which squandered an 11-point early only to see Brazil turn the tables on them late. Brazil point guard Marcelinho Huertas scored on a layup with 6.1 seconds to play.

Russia’s coach, American David Blatt, took a timeout after the shot from Huertas, and dialed up the perfect play.

“Good for him, really good for him,” Blatt said of Fridzon. “He made the coach look good. He had to catch and release the ball quickly. More important than the play was the execution. They executed it to perfection.”

Andrei Kirilenko led Russia with 19 points. Timofey Mozgov had 18 before fouling out late. Aleksey Shved, headed to the Minnesota Timberwolves along with Kirilenko, finished with 17 points.

SPAIN TOPS GREAT BRITAIN IN A NAIL-BITER

If that Russia-Brazil finish wasn’t wild enough, Spain and the host nation team Great Britain tried to top them in the first game of the evening session, with Spain escaping with a 79-78 win when Jose Calderon dribbled the final seven seconds off of the game clock.

Luol Deng hit an off-balance 3-pointer with seven seconds left to pull within 79-78 and somehow Jose Calderon was allowed to dribble out clock. Deng had four fouls and had facilitated the comeback and did not want to pick up his fifth (five fouls ends your game in international competition).

Deng finished with 26 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, another valiant effort in defeat for the best player on Great Britain’s team. Joel Freeland played a huge game as well, finishing with 25 points and making three of his seven shots from beyond the 3-point line, as well as seven rebounds in a head-to-head matchup against Spain’s superstar frontline of Pau and Marc Gasol.

Pau Gasol finished with 17 points and five assists and Marc Gasol 12 points and three rebounds, but it was Calderon who did the most damage for Spain. He knocked down the free throws down the stretch and had that heady play to finish the game. He led Spain with 19 points, four rebounds and two assists.

PARKER, BATUM LEAD FRANCE PAST LITHUANIA

Tony Parker scored 27 points, including seven of the last eight of the game, and Nicolas Batum 21 Thursday as France beat Lithuania 82-74.

Parker’s 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter sealed a 10-2 run that gave France the lead for good. Lithuania never got closer than seven points the rest of the way.

And that’s two straight impressive wins for France since their 27-point blowout loss to the U.S. in their opener. Much of that is due to Parker finally finding his rhythm after spending just 10 days in full preparation for the competition after a June nightclub incident left him unable, at the behest of team doctors, go through the normal process.

“I am feeling better and better,” Parker said. “I feel like I’ve found my legs again, but in the last game (against Argentina) I was already feeling better. I felt like the shots I was taking would go in. Today I felt in rhythm, I tried to be aggressive but patient without getting frustrated and wanting to do too much.”

Boris Diaw had a solid game with 10 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Ronny Turiaf finished with 1o rebounds.

A three-time Olympic bronze medalist, Lithuania is 1-2 heading into Saturday’s showdown with the U.S.

GINOBILI LEADS ARGENTINA PAST PESKY TUNISIA

Manu Ginobili made sure a 40-40 halftime score was a footnote for the Argentina, scoring 24 points to help his team run away from Tunisia for a 92-69 .

He got help from his NBA friends as Carlos Delfino chipped in with 21 points and Luis Scola 20 as Tunisia simply couldn’t sustain their effort against a second straight team stocked with NBA players. The U.S. waxed them by 47 points Tuesday night.

Tunisia’s lead was 14 points after the first 10 minutes but Ginobili went to work in the second quarter, scoring all but three of Argentina’s 15-0 run that completely changed the momentum of the game. He knocked down a 3-pointer to start the second half and Argentina led the rest of the way.

July 31, 2012 · 7:50 AM ET

LONDON —Andrei Kirilenko and Aleksey Shved powered Russia past China 73-54 in the first game of the day at the Olympic Basketball Stadium.

Kirilenko led the way with 16 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the floor, 7-for-10 from inside the 3-point line. Shed had 14 and six assists. Yi Jianlian led China with 16 points and was the only player from China to score in double digits.

July 7, 2012 · 10:11 PM ET

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY — As the United States named its 12-man roster for London 2012 on Saturday, two teams earned trips to London with victories in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Caracas, Venezuela.

Russia and Lithuania, two of the favorites in the 12-team qualifying tourney, are teams Nos. 10 and 11 in the Olympic field.

In the first of Saturday’s games, point guard Alexey Shved (who looks to be NBA-bound this fall) led Russia to an 85-77 win over Nigeria, scoring 22 points and dishing out six assists. The game was tied at 26 early in the second quarter, but Russia outscored Nigeria 20-5 to close the period and led by as many as 21 in the second half.

Andrei Kirilenko added 19 points, eight rebounds and four steals for Russia, while Ike Diogu (who played two games for the Spurs last season) led Nigeria with 16 points and 14 boards. The Hornets’ Al-Farouq Aminu scored 13 points, but had seven turnovers.

Russia shot a scorching 14-for-27 from 3-point range. They were arguably the U.S. Team’s toughest competition in the medal rounds in the 2010 World Championship, losing 89-79 in the quarterfinals.

The team the U.S. beat in the ’10 semifinals was the second team to qualify for the Olympics on Saturday. Lithuania, who had a disappointing finish in last year’s Eurobasket (which they hosted), redeemed themselves with a 109-83 blowout of the Dominican Republic.

September 18, 2011 · 8:06 PM ET

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — In a competition filled with exquisite guard play, Spain got the most consistently brilliant effort from one of the world’s best in Juan Carlos Navarro on its way to repeat gold at EuroBasket 2011.

Navarro’s perimeter game was complemented perfectly by the inside presence of Pau Gasol and his younger brother Marc Gasol, who took turns carrying the load for Spain throughout the competition. But it was Navarro’s relentlessness that marked Spain’s run throughout this tournament and throughout Sunday’s title game.

In a matchup with another one of the world’s most dynamic scoring guards in Parker, Navarro proved up to the task, as did his stellar ensemble cast. Pau Gasol had 17 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Marc Gasol added 11 points, six rebounds, two blocks and two assists. Navarro’s backcourt mate Jose Calderon finished with 17 points of his own. Serge Ibaka blocked five shots in his 21 minutes, showing during a five-minute stretch of the second quarter as Spain built a 10-point advantage that would not be surrendered.

The crowd faves were just the warm up act, however, as France (as noted by my main man and NBA.com’s John Schuhmann) and Russia played their way into the semifinals with wins …

There is only one team still playing in EuroBasket that hasn’t tasted defeat in this competition. Russia has won nine straight games and will take that unblemished mark into a semifinal showdown against France. When you have the most versatile player in the competition, do-it-all swingman Andrei Kirilenko, leading the charge every night, it makes sense that Russia continues to wear down the competition. Kirilenko finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, four steals and two blocks.

“Two years ago we played in the same phase against the same group of great players and the same great coach and we lost, as I said then, by a better team,” said Russia coach David Blatt. “We moved forward from there. We provided our players with the kind of teaching and culture it takes to build a successful national team. We got back two of our main players – Kirilenko and [Viktor] Khryapa, who didn’t play in 2009, and you saw tonight how important they are. But the story is the other players who matured and are now a higher level basketball players. It’s a sweet win, but the joy is short, because we play tomorrow in the semifinals. We’ve had a great run so far.”

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — The quarterfinal round got off to an explosive (and rousing, for one country) start Wednesday, thanks to our friends from Macedonia …

Vlado Ilievski‘s 3-pointer (off an assist from Bo McCalebb) with 11 seconds left pushed Macedonia ahead and they held on to pull off one of the most shocking upsets in EuroBasket history, knocking off host nation Lithuania before a raucous crowd in a hostile environment. Ilievski (12 points) and McCalebb (23 points) had plenty of company in the heroes corner in the Macedonia locker room after the game. Vojdan Stojanovski who didn’t miss a single shot, he was 5-for-5 from beyond the 3-point line, finishing with 15 points.

“This is a huge win for us. We are very happy,” Stojanovksi said. “I think we played very well and we deserved this win. I have to thank our playmakers because they put me in a position to have open shots. I was confident of making them. Spain will be a tough team but we have proved that we can beat good teams in this tournament.”